So You Want A Job In Washington, Eh?

So You Want To Get A Job In Washington, Eh?

WASHINGTON — You think you have all the qualifications for a big-time White House job.

Your office wall has a picture of you standing between President-elect Clinton and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn.

You've got a resume so good-looking it could be sold as a poster.

You gave Clinton a hundred bucks in January, when all your friends thought Paul Tsongas, the former Massachusetts senator whose chief campaign prop was an 83-page book on how to heal the economy, made more sense.

Trouble is, there are thousands like you all over America this November, ready to have their plates filled at the Great American Patronage Feast, now playing at your local Democratic politician's office.

Some 3,000 presidential appointments, from White House chief of staff to State Department chief of mission posts in Djibouti and the Holy See, are likely to be filled between now and Jan. 20, when Clinton takes office.

Here, courtesy of people who play influence roulette for a living, is a primer on how to get yourself noticed in Clintonland:

Step 1. Get a plum book.

It's actually bound in yellow, and the official title is "United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions."

But inside this $13 government-printed tome are all the plums Washington can offer, 211 pages of small-type listings of more than 9,000 "non-competitive" jobs. All the overseas stuff is there, all the White House goodies, all the U.S. marshals, from Honolulu to Portland, Maine. The book is an important starting point in a job hunt.

Alas, if you live in Connecticut, you'll probably have to relocate. There are only about six jobs in the state, and they are highly specialized, such as U.S. attorney or director of veterans' medical centers.

And even with this book, you'll need to do more. It's become so popular -- Washington bookstores have signs on their doors advertising it -- it's lost its toniness.

Step 2. Get a prune book.

If the plum book has become Washington's version of a weed, the prune book remains the caviar. It first came out in 1988, analyzing 116 key sub-Cabinet jobs.

This year, author John H. Trattner, vice president at Washington's nonprofit Council for Excellence in Government, has published one listing 60 major science and technology jobs and another listing 45 financial management jobs.

In addition, Government Executive magazine has published its own "preview of the 1992 prune list," showcasing 50 top jobs.

If you want to make a difference, authors say, these are the jobs to covet.

The new assistant secretary of education for educational research and improvement, for instance, should "be able to stimulate national debate on educational standards," the magazine says.

Step 3. Make your resume sing.

Don't think you're being brilliant because you can concoct a resume on your PC using bold, italic and regular type all on the same page.

This resume stuff has become big business; you have to sell yourself the way Waldenbooks sold "Scarlett."

Remember, said Florence Stahl, an Avon-based resume counselor, the Clinton people are reading hundreds of resumes every day.

As a result, she said, "you have to have four or five powerful sentences right up front telling what you can do."

And it has to look just right. In Washington, Kathy Troutman, owner of the Resume Place, charges $300 and up for her service, and promises a plum -- er, a prune -- resume. Democratic brag sheets go onto recycled paper, for instance, while Republican resumes go on the finest 100 percent bond.

Troutman has been bombarded with requests since the election. She has doubled her space and added five people to what was a two-person staff.

A tip: Most of her resumes are not going to Little Rock. They are going to contacts in Washington. "Most of the resumes we're doing are for people who know people," she said.

Step 4. Know People.

John F. Droney Jr., the Farmington lawyer and former Democratic state chairman who helped run Clinton's Connecticut campaign, can tell when someone is calling about a job.

"People don't like to ask," he said. So they ask if they can simply talk. Or sit down with Droney. Or go to lunch or breakfast.

If you know Droney or Peter G. Kelly, the Hartford lawyer and big-time Democratic fund-raiser, or ever wanted to, now is the time to pick up the phone and the tab. Droney keeps a list of callers; Kelly estimated that as of late last week, he had spoken with eight people inquiring about Cabinet-level positions and 100 talking about sub-Cabinet level.

"You become a counselor," Kelly said. "You tell them to find eight or 10 areas that interest them, and then you talk about how you fit into certain roles."

Droney refers his callers to Connecticut's Democratic senators, Lieberman and Christopher J. Dodd. But of course, the two men will

put in good words for good friends and, presumably, good contributors.

Droney said deciding how to recommend someone is a subjective thing, and asking him to describe the process is like "asking Rembrandt what colors he chose."